Fewer city high schools got a failing grade from the state this year compared with last, but the dreaded roster included a handful of small schools and its first charter school – both high priorities of Bloomberg’s administration.

The state deemed 108 city high schools “in need of improvement,” including the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School in Manhattan as well as 63 schools that receive federal poverty aid and 44 other schools that do not get such funds.

The state Education Department added 11 schools to the list and removed nine. But eight others on the list last year were closed this summer, for a net decrease of six and the lowest number since the designations began in 2002.

Still, critics of the Bloomberg administration’s management of schools and its push for charter schools seized on the data to question its priorities.

“It shows structure is not the be-all and end-all because for the first time we are seeing a lot more small schools, and even one charter school, on the list rather than big schools,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

City education spokesman Andrew Jacob said the agency was “gratified” by the data, but added that “the identification of several of these schools appears to be questionable.”

He said a careful review was needed because many of the newly added schools serve immigrants and challenging students. The list was based on student performances on math and English Regents exams and graduation rates.

Ron Tabano, principal at Wildcat Academy, which serves some 450 overage and under-credited students with a history of social and educational troubles, said the dubious distinction was unfair to his school.

The state traditionally releases each September a list of all schools “in need of improvement.”

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Failing our kids

City high schools labeled failing by the state Department of Education.